I went to the Hyundai dealers again today. At Premier Hyundai, as soon as I got out of my car a cocky lackey came up and presumptively asked,"Cash for Clunkers?" I'm sorry, the Malibu is NOT a clunker. If he hadn't caught me so off guard I would have told him to step off, although I was pretty firm about it anyway*. I asked clackey about GCs with navigation, since the forum online says the first models are starting to trickle in, but he insisted it would still be six months yet.
I then went over to Beaverton Hyundai, where I was oddly not accosted as soon as I got out of the car. Since we last met they have stocked up on turbo GCs, presumably because those qualify for C4C (whereas the V6 I want does not). After poking around a bit on the lot I went inside, where Lackey 1 greeted me and knew who I was. So it's not that they weren't paying attention - they were able to pull my file up as soon as I arrived, and were scrambling to get the guy who is 'assigned' to me.
Lackey 1 offered to show me the same navigation system in another car, which I correctly pointed out is the same unit as the Sonata rather than the Genesis sedan. I played with that a little bit and I think it would work, although I am not looking forward to using the touchscreen for stereo controls. Most likely I will just be using iPod with the steering wheel mounted controls anyway. Lackey 1 offered to get some info on availability and fetched a man in a Hawaiian shirt, who told me they wouldn't be getting any navigation-equipped models until March.
When I pressed further, Hawaiian Shirt Man explained that what he means is that he knows of navi-equipped GCs 'on the ground' but he isn't ordering any until the 2011 models. Based on the information I have pieced together it sounds like navi will be equipped as standard on the V6 GT and Track models, so I hope he intends to see out the rest of the year with his current stock. In any case, the cars he knew of were all GT trims and he was not aware of any Track models equipped with the navi yet, although he said he would check on Monday. Hawaiian Shirt Man also suggested that Hyundai was now only providing Track models to dealers with technicians sufficiently trained to maintain them, which they happen to be, and that he would be OK to trade for a Track model even if I didn't buy it because they were good cars to have. I told him to find a Mirabeau Blue one, and hope that my file already says I'm after the A/T - although so far I have no reason to doubt the completeness of their files.
So, it seems like the local dealers are not going to be of much further use unless I enter into negotiations with one of them.
*I am opposed to 'Cash for Clunkers'. I am opposed to it on a personal basis, on a car enthusiast basis, and if I were environmentally minded I would be opposed to it on that basis as well. I don't like my car being called a clunker (although I don't know if it even qualifies - damned if I am going to check). I don't want the government giving my car the sodium silicate lethal injection. I don't want the government demolishing other cars that are rare or interesting, like the people who clunkered a C4 Corvette and a Maserati. I don't want somebody destroying my Firebird before I get to it! We should also not be cashing in our cultural heritage for shortsighted gain. How about we tear down the White House to help support our country's floundering homebuilding industry? I am further appalled that this whole business is being tauted as an environmentally friendly initiative, because it is better to just keep an old car running than to go through the trouble of destroying it and then building a whole new car - especially hybrids, with their nickel battery packs. Whatever happened to reduce, reuse, recycle?
1 comment:
It's for trying to jump-start the economy and saving thousands of jobs in companies that were mismanaged and selling products that weren't competitive with foreign products.
Not that I'm trying to defend it-- I don't feel strongly either way about it.
Also your malibu doesn't come anywhere near qualifying. Though it easily would if they used your mpg instead of the EPA's. And that shouldn't be a point of pride.
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